Jones’ message: Heyward needs to learn to play with pain
Jason Heyward has sat out 17 games and he's expected to miss several more. (Curtis Compton)
When a player of significance is injured, it can be a problem for his team. When the player of significance has a lingering injury that doesn’t show up on an X-ray or an MRI, it can be a problem for the player.
This is the gray area where Jason Heyward currently sits (with an ice bag).
Chipper Jones did not necessarily call out his Braves teammate the other day when he said that Heyward “needs to realize [that] at 80 percent [he’s] a force,” and that, “There are a bunch of his teammates that are out there playing with discomfort and not healthy.”
But that’s about as close as you can come to saying, “Rub some dirt on it.”
Jones is team’s elder statesman. He is one of the clubhouse leaders. He’s also playing with a meniscus tear in his knee. If he says something, there’s a pretty good chance he is not the only one thinking it.
Heyward says he has a sore shoulder. Nobody doubts that. But injuries can be a dangerous thing when it comes to forming perceptions. At one end of the spectrum, we think of Willis Reed, dragging his injured leg onto the court at Madison Square Garden for Game 7 of the NBA finals. At the other end, we think of J.D. Drew spending an inordinate time lounging on the disabled list and missing games with the Braves because he said he strained his neck while swimming in a friend’s pond. (Was the pond Loch Ness?)
No player in any sport is 100 percent after the season starts. That’s the message Jones was trying to get across. There are degrees of injuries. Most of them are taped up, shot up, iced and played with.
This might just be something Heyward still needs to learn. But at 21 years old and in season two of his career, it’s a bit premature to start labeling a guy (particularly after he was runner up for rookie of the year last season).
Braves general manager Frank Wren said Jones was merely “stating the obvious. We need Jason back in the lineup. I don’t think he was calling him out.”
He certainly did not suggest Heyward lacked toughness. But he chose his words carefully when asked if the club had any lingering concern that Heyward might not fully understand what injury he should or should not try to play through.
“I think that’s the balancing act for all young players,” he said. “Sometimes they’re dealing with injuries and aches and pains they’ve never dealt with before. You don’t want to mess with your career, so you’ve got to figure it out. That’s one thing we’re trying to help him work out – what can you play through and what can you make sure is healed before you play again.”
Wren said the Braves would rather Heyward sit out and heal up now than have the injury linger through the season. He also understands that sometimes players get reputations.
“To me that’s the difficult part,” he said. “Whether you’re in my position, a manager, a fan, a teammate, you’re not walking in that guy’s shoes. We have no doubt that Jason has discomfort in his shoulder, even though tests show there’s no structural damage. But there’s inflammation in there and it’s sore when he swings. Sure, we could’ve brought him back quicker. But we would be taking the chance that this could linger all year.”
Heyward is working with a physical therapist in Orlando. Soon, he’ll go to the minors on a rehab assignment for “several games,” Wren said, and eventually he’ll be back with the Braves. Nobody is putting any dates on this.
When he returns, Heyward will be greeted by a .214 average but a world of expectations to help a struggling offense. The guess here is that he’ll play through whatever soreness he has, barring a significant injury.
This is the closest Heyward has come to feeling any heat or criticism in his career. There’s a pretty good chance that it will have an impact And Jones is right about something: 80 percent of Heyward is still better than most of the Braves’ lineup.
By Jeff Schultz
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216 comments Add your comment
heartofdarkness
June 9th, 2011
3:56 pm
That a clubhouse leader is calling for a hitter, who while injured, was hitting .214, says a lot about the Braves organization’s ability to develop outfield talent in its system. Unfortunately, the club’s desperation is all too apparent to the rest of MLB.
rlinaug
June 9th, 2011
3:57 pm
you idiots who are calling on chipper to retire are fools. He ranks 25 in RBIs this season, at 39. He’s still great. And cause he’s played with a sore toe, a torn miniscus and all other ailments–and cause he’s a future hall of famer–he’s precisely the man to tell heyward to get wash the sand out of his •••••.
boog
June 9th, 2011
4:23 pm
I am in the camp of letting Heyward get completely well. He was not performing with the shoulder as it is…. period. As far as Chipper is concerned someone should lecture him about hanging on two years too long. He is a below average player making 14 mil. per year? When the Braves can dump his and Lowe’s salary maybe they can get some guys who can hit. I appreciate what Chipper has DONE IN THE PAST… but what he is DOING IN THE PRESENT is simply hamstringing our GM. Chipper has said in the past that if he could not perform he would not hold the Braves hostage but rather retire…. well… here’s your opportunity Chip… RETIRE!
bravesfanforever
June 9th, 2011
4:30 pm
I have one Question.Is Heyward really hurt or is he a goof off.He looks fine sitting on the bench and jumping around with everybody when he was in the dugout.He needs to suck it up and play.I have no problem with Chipper saying what he said.Somebdy needed too.It should have been that Good for nothing No balls Fredi Gonzalez.What waste of Human flesh.There is no fire in him at all.Rookie of the year will be Freddie Freeman and Rookie pitcher will be Johnny Venters and give the closer a little slack Kimbrell is real young and is growing into that role he will be just fine.Just take a couple of tums when he enters the game.Hey Freddie G get your head into the game show some fire hey argue a call or two show us you care.
DawgDad
June 9th, 2011
4:46 pm
Geez, the guy has a sore shoulder and he’s hitting .214. This is pretty plain evidence he needs to sit and rehab the shoulder. The REAL problem is the guy below the Mendoza line who DOES NOT have a sore shoulder.
Parkview Groupie
June 9th, 2011
5:08 pm
I <3 Sonny Clusters.
xoxoxo
Bobby Bobby
June 9th, 2011
5:14 pm
Shut up Larry. Go home.
jerry
June 9th, 2011
5:23 pm
I would like to see him say that he is fine and pain free just to see if he is really any good.
1eyedJack
June 9th, 2011
5:27 pm
Maybe Chipper should have done the Jedi Hand Wave on Heyward.
tim
June 9th, 2011
5:48 pm
lets not tap dance around Jason Heyward is a pansy ,wuss,candy, soft or whatever else you can think off. The thing everyone is missing here is that Jason Heyward is a selfish individual. He has no concern for his teammates he is only concerned with his career. Well Jason fame is fleeting take what you can get and run with it. Only you can decide what you want your rep to be that of a gamer or someone who look like Tarzan play like Jane. Right now I and many others think Jane is tougher.
bvillebaron
June 9th, 2011
5:54 pm
Yeah Tim that’s right, Heyward was being selfish when he tried to play through a thumb injury last seasson. Some of you guys are priceless, truly priceless.
dp
June 9th, 2011
6:24 pm
Chumper are you still pissed that Hayward won’t go the Hooters in Roswell with you…..heck I thought the Braves put in your contract no more Hooters after you dropped a big old chicken on your big toe and had to miss about 10 games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Chumper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Timbo
June 9th, 2011
6:51 pm
I don’t always agree with what Chipper has to say, but he’s right on this one. Hell, people at my work had this discussion long before Chipper came out publicly with his opinion. The fact of the matter is that Heyward may just be one of those players that is “brittle” and can’t play hurt. I think it’s a”head” thing more than a “body” thing though. Oh and by the way. He is not injured and he was never injured. He was/is just hurt. Big difference….I’m still a fan though, and have high hopes for him.
Timbo
June 9th, 2011
6:55 pm
MLB baseball is humbling like no other team sport. I can’t help but think if Heyward was batting .350 with his sore shoulder, that the DL would not have even been a consideration. Hell, they need to put Uggla on the DL for some “mystery” injury and let him sort it out in his head.
JT
June 9th, 2011
7:06 pm
Who the heck is Jason Heyward??? See how easily we forget the forgetable?
Next one to forget is Dan Ug (whatever his name is) disappearing fast as his batting average>
Hope they sent du down to AA to learn how to bat. Not AAA he is not that good.
We deserve more than a monkey with a bat (got that from B Cox.
PMC
June 9th, 2011
7:32 pm
sigh… 90% of this is just wasted drivel.
LJ
June 9th, 2011
7:35 pm
Suck it up, JH.You’re getting the rep of a Slacker.
murphy
June 9th, 2011
7:44 pm
Reading some of the comments from so called Braves fans sadden me to thiunk I have something in common with such ignorant people. Let Heyward heal and when he comes back if he is as inept as the rest of the hitters the you may have a reason to criticize.
Notso Fast
June 9th, 2011
8:14 pm
If 80 percent of what Heyward has done is better than his backup then the Braves are in real trouble. We sometime confuse potential with production.
Disgusted
June 9th, 2011
8:22 pm
It ain’t Heyward and it ain’t Uggla – it is this sorry a$$ low rent managerial staff we have……get rid of Fredi and Parrish – and fire up these players by kicking them in the butt instead of appeasing them and covering for them….Call them out….tell them they are doing a pi$$ poor job…..embarass them in the media….and then if they don’t play, trade them!
Get Real
June 9th, 2011
8:23 pm
J.R Richards Phil. You knew that but whatever
BirdDawg24
June 9th, 2011
8:33 pm
if u people dont like the way the braves are playing > u shouldve seen them back in the 70s and 80s. aside from hank,murphy and horner not much more to tell.if u dont like how they are playing , put on some cleats and get out there.
Hit A Single
June 9th, 2011
9:01 pm
We build these players up and make them stars before they do anything to earn star status. Bobblhehead night, what a joke. Heyward should have ask them cancel it. If he was hitting .280 he wouldn’t be hurt. Slumps will cause you to hurt. I am like Chipper, he needs a good butt kick.
bob
June 9th, 2011
9:10 pm
I love it.
A guy who has averaged 125 games played over the last 7 years is commenting on JH and the DL. Is there some saying about glass houses and stones?
The same guy (who is a HOF player without any doubt) is now hitting .250.
Talk with the bat as the team needs the HOF bat as much as the JH bat.
brooks
June 9th, 2011
9:38 pm
I disagree 80% of .214 is .171. Keep him out. Doesn’t have the heart imo.
J Clay
June 9th, 2011
9:51 pm
Same ole Chipper huh? Dude has missed more time for faux injuries than anyone in the history of MLB but this year he plays injured so he gets to call out J Hey…I know I am in the minority but I will be glad when Chipper and his mouth are gone. Can anyone tell me how many tweaks he’s had over the years?
Benny
June 9th, 2011
9:55 pm
George Lombard, anyone?
Professor Moriarty
June 9th, 2011
10:58 pm
I’m with Dr. Phil: Chipper is one of the great hypochondriac’s of the modern era. Time to retire the John Wayne act.
Heyward doesn’t need Chipper to set him straight, but he does need someone to tell him — and Prado — to stop sliding headfirst. It’s a bonehead play and invitation to injury.
Freddie G
June 9th, 2011
11:08 pm
This is the clear case of the kettle calling the pot black.
Jason
June 9th, 2011
11:11 pm
Hey Chipper,
Should Dwayne Wade sit out those minutes because of the thigh bruise?
Just soliciting your expert opinion.
Jason
June 9th, 2011
11:18 pm
How the hell can anyone say Chipper is right, unless they are the buffoon like he is.
Jason
June 9th, 2011
11:28 pm
Chipper has not been productive for the last three years, and is hanging on because of the money. His production over the past three seasons does not warrant $14 million or 17.5% of the payroll. The Braves could have upgraded the offense by signing two free agents and would have gotten more productiion at third base and centerfield.
reckingball
June 10th, 2011
1:49 am
I don’t know what percent of Heyward, the Braves had before he went on the DL, but if it was 80%, then it was not enough.He was doing anything with his bat.
His “presence” in the lineup doen’t mean much, if he can’t produce at the plate.
Let the kid heal up, come back at 100%, and be able to help the offense score some darn runs.
Harald
June 10th, 2011
3:44 am
Some of you really have no clue and some of you do. Just typing behind your walls of protection. I bet hardly none of you would have the balls to stand up to them and say it to their face. Eventually Chipper will have to have another knee surgery, but hopefully not as bad. I think that is only inevitable. He’s pretty much on his last year or so in the sport and off he’ll ride into the sunset after a long and successful career as a professional baseball player. Heyward is just starting his “career” folks, I think he should do what the doctor tells him to do, but also do what’s most comfortable to him. Yes, I do feel he needs to tough it out though. There is nothing structurally wrong with him, he’s just got a little pain. Like chipper is saying, there are plenty of athletes who play with pain and that’s something that Heyward will have to learn to do.
Harald
June 10th, 2011
4:06 am
Oh, and another thing… some of you are typing just to be typing. You follow a team when they are in first place, not because you care much about the sport but because they are in first place, like my roomate. He is kinda clueless when it comes to sports, but he tends to root for teams because of their first place status. I mean he claims that the Yankees of all teams is his favorite team! Only because of their fame, nothing more.. Why even waste your time? To some of “us” who actually have meaningful memories playing the sport. I mean Baseball is that one sport that I played for 11 years of my life, so it was all I really loved growing up. I’m sure there are plenty of others who can relate… Well, following a team and being a fan means so much more to us than others. Because the sport is a part of our lives and our lives would truthfully be incomplete without it.
You sit there and mock the sport that we love. You sit there and mock our team? How dare you… For you lifetime fans out there. Go you! Go you for picking a team and sticking with it through thick and thin. Go you for picking the Atlanta Braves as your team. By the way in case you all didn’t know, the Braves currently have the highest ERA in baseball! And I don’t know about you, but the last time I checked. The pitcher is actually the most important position in baseball and the catcher is the 2nd most important, in my opinion of course. And a lot of the other positions are tied. Of course I was a catcher, but I mean the most action occurs with the throw from the pitcher to the catcher. Am I wrong? And to have the highest ERA in the sport means a tremendous amount. I know for a fact that we will go to the playoffs again this year. Maybe we’ll win the World Series maybe we won’t. Eventually the Braves will win the World Series again and I can really smell it. Now can we all just get along???
Buzz ME
June 10th, 2011
4:50 am
chipper is right. Heyward is a sissy-ass
bob horner's third nipple
June 10th, 2011
6:19 am
baseball players are faril and i can’t use the real word that goes with being a female cat. meow. play hockey, it’s a mans sport. these guys are..meow’s.
Matt
June 10th, 2011
6:32 am
Hey steve brown above, dude really u think chipper doesnt have thr ight to call him out like that, for goodness sakes chipper busted his balls this past winter and every spring training day to come back from his 2nd acl tear, and he succeeded. He may be hitting bad right now, but even playing right now with a tear in one of his knees, chipper has missed maybe 5 games this whole year and some were due to days off scheculed. Heyward does need to take his time coming back so he doesnt injury anything more serious, but chipper was only stating the obvious that heyward in the lineup adds another weapon that pitchers have to remember about either by him getting on base with a walk, or hanging a curveball/slider because chipper or mccann are on deck and the pitcher is worried about facing them….. Chipper has had a very injury plauged carreer that is after the braves screwed him up/over when they moved him to the outfield for that one season, after that is when all of his injuries started they wore him down by playing him out there, and if their not careful the same thing is going to happen to prado!!!!
RA
June 10th, 2011
6:36 am
I’m glad Chipper called him out. This team needs veteran leadership and this is the closest that I’ve seen to that in quite some time.
No fan of Larry Wayne
June 10th, 2011
7:14 am
Well Larry Wayne is at it again,(refuse to call him Chipper) it appears that old Larry thinks he is running the show in Atlanta.How many times has he been out with sore knees,sore this and that? shut up Larry Wayne you are a player and nothing else.
Escaped from Email Purgatory
June 10th, 2011
8:27 am
Schultz,
Where is any mention in your blog about the irony of Chipper Jones, of all people, preaching the gospel of playing with pain? Somebody else playing, that is – with their pain, he means to say.
How can you leave that responsibility to mouth breathers such as myself (and about a third of the posters to this blog)?
Larry C is plumbing new depths in chutzpah – one of his friends can explain what that means to him. Hey Schultz, you’re his pal. You can tell him.
His response to his detractors in your blog a few months ago was ballsy (i.e. Suck on it. I make more money than you and you’re losers who live in your parents’ basement).
But for a guy [Chipper] with an undeniable history of excusing himself from work for maladies small and smaller, to publicly lecture a teammate on toughness displays breathtaking gall.
The correctness of Chipper’s statements about Heyward aren’t the point here. This is truly a case where you embrace the message and discredit the messenger. Never has it been more deserved.
Of all the nerve. Chipper’s the kind of guy who invites himself over for dinner at your house then criticizes the choice of soda pop – “I only drink Pepsi products.” Chipper would bum a ride to work from you, stiff you on gas money and then tell you your car smells funny.
Heck, the new worldwide paradigm for gall should be whatever Chipper does. He’s a natural.
D man
June 10th, 2011
9:09 am
Braves looked good the last three games. Got hits when they needed them and swept the fish.
schmeckdawg
June 10th, 2011
9:30 am
Paging Dr. Larry Wayne Jones…….Paging Dr. Larry Wayne Jones!
schmeckdawg
June 10th, 2011
9:32 am
@ D man
I know winning is the bottom line. That’s all there is to it; however, they have got to start hitting. This 1, 2, 3 runs a game is getting ridiculous! I mean the winning can’t last if this continues.
Pete
June 10th, 2011
9:48 am
Chipper saying that anyone should play hurt is a complete joke…big a$$ case of – pot meet kettle
steve brown
June 10th, 2011
9:50 am
Matt, look at Chippers last 6 years and the number of games he has missed. This is one subject he needs to shut his mouth on.
steve brown
June 10th, 2011
9:54 am
A broken down country “gone huntin” boy needs to let the one brother on the team be.
Bogey
June 10th, 2011
9:56 am
When he gets back in there he should be heavily fined every time he slides head first. Too valuable to risk injury like that. You can be aggressive sliding feet first.
jr
June 10th, 2011
9:57 am
if jason were white u guys would not be talkeing bad about him i love the braves iam from atlanta the truth is we havent won a world series since 1995 the braves just dont keep black players around when we had david and fred and the other good black players we wouldve won more world series but john didnt wont many blacks on the team i lik echipper but the truth is he is washed up now i will enjoy jason while he is still here but the braves dont care for black players u so call fans are fake and wont come out and say it but most of u just dont like great black players
jr
June 10th, 2011
10:01 am
i wish chipper will just go away chipper is washed up we need more hitters on the team all we talk about is the great pichers we have in the farm system but we need a top young 3rd base after chipper leaves i hope this is his last year